In March of 2019, Brent and I moved from Phoenix Arizona to Milwaukee Wisconsin. We decided we had had enough of the 120+ summers, and I said I was ready to live in a more temperate area of the country, and that I wanted to live in a city that had all four seasons (Arizona basically has a 1 week Spring, a 5 month Summer, and a month of Fall and no winter).
We hired a moving company to pack up all of our belongings, and we drove cross country leaving about 9pm on February 26 and headed East. We suffered a few calamities, such as blowing a tire on our UHaul trailer that stranded us in Gallup New Mexico for two days, plus a weird bulge in one of our tires, again in Gallup. One of our fish also died in Gallup (we packed a huge Placo with 4 catfish in bucket equipped with a filter and a heater but it was too much for the Placo). But the drive was not as awful as we had prepared. The kitties were in three separate carriers in the backseat of our Kia Soul.
We stopped overnight at Brent's father's place near St. Louis, Missouri, and then we hit the road for a short 8 hour drive into Milwaukee arriving on March 3 2019.
It was cold, and snow was on the ground. We lived with just inflatable mattresses and two lawn chairs, but we did have our TVs and computers and a fish tank. An interesting statement about our priorities. Our belongings didn't arrive for another week, but we did ok even though there was a Polar Vortex that roared through Milwaukee our first week, with temps going toabout -25 degrees F. I started my new life as a floor nurse at a downtown urban hospital. Things were going ok, but it was a hard adjustment, giving up everything and everyone we knew in Phoenix. But things were basically going well. I decided it was time to do something about my worsening health, and started exercising and eventually joined not just one but two gyms to help me shed 31 pounds so far (with another 20 to go).
Winter ended, then came Spring, a beautiful Summer, a beautiful Fall... and then Winter was upon us again. But we survived several trips through the snow. I never missed a day of work due to snow, but folks here tell me the snow this year was quite minimal, but it was at least a good chance to practice and think about what to do when "the big one" hits. Birthdays, Holidays, marital issues came and went and we survived them all. Winter was starting to turn away, and Spring occasionally peeked around the corner to tell us she was in the neighborhood.
Life was so good. Relatively normal. My activity level had been so much greater than my existence in Phoenix, where for whatever reason, all I could do on my days off was worry incessantly about my sleep. For 20 years, all I did was think about sleep, and I allowed two decades to pass before I realized life had essentially stopped. Thus the move to Milwaukee. I was going to experience the different seasons. I would schedule my three night shifts back to back, so I'd work three nights in a row, then have four days off. Four days of sleeping at night, being awake during the day, living a normal life that didn't concentrate so relentlessly on getting sleep.
I can't remember exactly when I heard about Coronavirus. I remember the news mentioning that the huge metropolitan city of Wuhan, China, was in the grips of a new virus, a "novel Coronavirus," that had made the jump from an animal butchered in a neighborhood market to a human. Unlike previous Coronaviruses, this mutation made the jump from animal to human, and then spread from human to human and spread like wildfire. Wuhan was in lockdown, and I marveled at the images on the news of public officials snatching folks from their homes, removing them forcibly into vans as families and neighbors screamed about the injustice of it all. I clucked my tongue at the senseless loss of civil liberty, as civilians were unwillingly whisked away to quarantine facilities. There was a YouTube circulating, recording city leaders ordering the gates be welded shut to prevent building occupants from leaving and spreading the disease.
Then I read about how Italy was completely shut down, and watched YouTubes of Italians leaning out their balcony windows to sing national anthems in solidarity as they attempt to stifle the deadly Corona Virus that was killing hundreds, and later thousands, of Italians.
The US reaction was muted, indecisive and timid. But eventually, cities and municipalities were ordering everyone to limit their exposure to no less than six feet. Then public facilities were closing. Restaurants were offering only takeout and delivery. There was a run on the grocery stores for, ridiculously, of all things, toilet paper.
On Friday March 20 2020, I decided to go into self imposed quarantine. I had worked for three 12-hour shifts taking care of several patients in isolation, all tested for Covid19. We were waiting for the results to come back, but until then, we were instituting the most complete isolation PPE I've ever experienced as a nurse. I was ok with all of the precautions, but some of my coworkers were understandably nervous, even scared. A few asked if they had the right to refuse to work with patients that could have the new virus. I could see things changing before my very eyes, as our hospital instituted required temperature screenings for all employees before they entered the building; as all visitors were banned from entering the facility for any reason other than the most dire of circumstances, and as tents were placed at the entrance for all Emergency Room patients to be screened for symptoms of the virus.
It's been seven days since I started my quarantine. I have not been spending time with anyone, and my only venture out was yesterday when I had to get groceries, and to replace my iPhone 6 that I accidentally put in the laundry. I plan to stay away from everyone except for when I am at work, and when I have to venture out for supplies. I've purchased a Step Aerobics platform and have found the original Rebok Step video from 1992 and I've been reliving my youth working out to it daily. I've ordered elastic bands that I can use to do a modified workout without the use of weights. I've set up a schedule so that I have regular sleep times, and I've scheduled out all of my household chores, the cooking of meals, and even what shows to stream on TV.
So now the blog. I haven't written in more than a year, but decided I want to start recording my thoughts and experiences during the Corona Virus Pandemic. Someone on the news suggested we all start recording these days, so that we can remember what happened, what we did, how we felt... and how we recovered from the worst world-wide disaster since the Spanish Flu.
So far, I'm doing ok. But this isolation, which would have been a non-event just 2 years ago, is a huge challenge for me. All this work to expand my life, to make a new friend, to get used to this marvelous beautiful city... all on hold... maybe even canceled forever.
Who knows.
